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Thursday, 25 February 2016

Primitive Man/Northless - "Primitive Man/Northless" Split LP (Review)

By: Hunter Young

Album Type: Split LP

Date Released: 04/03/2016

Label: Halo of Flies

Dirty like water from a flophouse drain. Like your sludge blackened
and charred? Here you go guy. Revel in this muck. Choke on its abrasive grit,
and let it close about you head. Let it absorb you.

“Primitive Man/Northless” DD//LP track listing:

1).
Primitive Man – “Empty Husk”

2).
Northless – “Deleted Heaetstrings”

3).
Northless – “The 10,000 Year Wound”

4).
Northless – “Wasted Breathe”

The Review

From the moment you hit play, you are now in their
territory and Primitive Man opens with the thudding “Empty Husk”, running at 15 minutes, it
could be a 7" by itself. It drags an axe behind it, slowly, inexorably
chasing you to the ground, as you hear and see the sparks from the concrete
shower from the weapon they wield. Bands of this caliber usually thunder, or
bludgeon the listener, but PM simply brings a rasp
and some time, to wear away, patiently, the walls of your mind. They have one
of the most hideously discordant sounds I am aware of, but it just rolls so
naturally, like a blanket made of distortion, all the while bloody clowns beat
you with the drums. Vocally, it’s just a tormented soul wailing with a throat
filled with viscous liquid, telling you everything you've ever done wrong. They
have crafted one of the bleakest standalone tracks ever, and it's both wondrous
and frightening as to how good it feels....

In more logical words, they play with zero
upbeat energy. It is completely scathing, a bleak opus to the missing part
inside us all. The guitar tones alone have no give, they simply pull tight as
steel cable around your lungs, and pull taught, while the rhythmic portion
simply crashes into you, just as hard as if you were standing right in front of
the kit. They play very physically on this track, and let their vocalist, for
this could never be in the same hemisphere as actual singing, simply put a
torch to your expectations. It's literally the same hopeless feeling that you
have when you see something crashing at you, unstoppable, and unrelenting. It's
a truly crushing track.

Northless
give none at all, after the crawl through barbed wire that PM give
you, with 3 tracks coming at you faster and just as heavy. A much angrier
sound, instead of a forlorn howl, Northless unleash a
very punked up sludge sound, with a clearer delivery musically. They simply
come at you with a hammer, and a metric ton of energy, giving you a long and
deep earful of pure, spiteful aggression. They have that lovely crunch in a
typically progressive sound, with tons of bends and chords. It's a delightfully
constructive chaos to the ear. It's the jangle of a mob getting ready to break
pretty much everything at hand, and getting really excited for it.

Northless
are a bit like a slower, methodical Brutal Truth or Napalm Death, and I really like their attack in three
parts, “Deleted Heartstrings”, “The 10,000 Year Wound”, and “Wasted Breath”. It comes at you fast,
pounding as the uniform steps of a conquering army would; heavy, without pause,
and simply heralding the end. Northless will grind
you into dust and leave you to smoulder where you fall.

This split has you choose between the abyss and
the spears at your back, and you will love either death you choose first.

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